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1819 June 16
To Erskine
Lett. 7. Whigs AntiReformists
§.5. Pos. 4. Whig Excellence
6
Thieves hate Gass-lights
Burke hated Metaphysics.
After all /Meantime/ What is a Whig? Who have been? who are? who have been? the Whigs? The existence of an excellent body of men in such sort and degree as to have always been actuated by this generous desire this desire of reform and self-sacrifice, who have been the individuals of which from time to time it has been composed? To my argument /notions/ the question is a matter of indifference. I say no creature born of woman could ever have entertained any such desire. this being granted the questions what a Whig is and of what individuals compose the body called the body of the Whigs is composed are questions /matters/ of indifference. /nothing to the purpose./ though[?] I have been saying and I think proving that the Whigs have had no desire of reform the Whigs have had no desire to sacrifice their suits[?] But to Your Lordship /Lordships argument/ these are vital questions. On each occasion where confidence is to be reposed, at a parliamentary Election for example, the question is in what individuals is the confidence /it/ to be reposed. Suppose M r Lamb for example coming a second time on the Hustings and saying I am a Whig: I am a Whig as such I am entitled to your confidence. Then comes the question how do you know /know you/ that you are a Whig? if it be worth knowing, how are we to know it? Have you any thing to shew for it? Have you any such thing as a register book in which the names of all Whigs have been entered? Do you know D r Galt[?]? Has he discovered an organ /for you an appropriate organ/ of Whiggism a protuberance that may be seen or felt growing out of your skulls? or is it no other than the general organ of disinterestedness, correspondent and opposite to the organ of rapacity, for the discovery of which we are so much in his debt /which we are one of the discoveries for which we are his debtors?/
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Title: [1819 June 17 + §.5 To Erskine]Description: 1819 June 17 + §.5 To Erskine ult o Lett. 7. Whigs AntiReformists §.5. Pos. 4. Whig Excellence 1 §.5. Position 4. By the Whig theory of Whig excellence the desire is not proved. Had any other set of men been the set in question, the task of this letter had been already at an end. But the set of men in question are the Whigs: and in relation to this set Your Lordship it seems has a theory. To be spoken of, this theory, like every thing else, must have a name. Till Your Lordship shall have been pleased to furnish me with a letter, I will take the liberty of giving it one, and styling it The Theory of Whig Excellence. Of this theory I regard Edmund Burke as the Fundator incipiens: incipiens with a c not an s: the incipient founder as the phrase is /in the language of Common Law/ /to borrow a phrase from Blackstone/: Your Lordship as the Fundator perficiens – the perfunctory founder. Speaking from this theory – “Your argument, Sir, might have had some truth in it” (I hear Your Lordship saying) your argument might have had some truth in it, had the Whigs been as other men are. But Whigs are not as other men are: they are of an opposite nature: they are of a finer, a superior nature. Other men care for nobody but themselves: Whigs think of every thing /care for every body/ but themselves. My Lord, with submission excellence in this case is still open to dispute: authority is here silent. The Church indeed is excellent; the king most excellent: excellent and most excellent, as syllables are long and short, by authority: the Church excellent, by authority of advertisements published by the Members of the Upper House of Convocation: the King most excellent, as testified in and by the Liturgy, ordained by Act of Parliament. Convocation and Parliament are constituted authorities. But the Whigs of England who ever they are, are not yet constituted authorities. My Lord, when either Parliament or the Upper House of Convocation acknowledge this their assumed /supposed/ title, then will I acknowledge it. As it is, {I must dispute it as well as I am able} to the best of my poor ability, I must dispute it.
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Title: [1819 June 15 ┴ §.5 To Erskine]Description: 1819 June 15 ┴ §.5 To Erskine Lett. 7. Whigs AntiReformists §.5. Pos. 4. Whig Excellence 2 2 On this occasion I am really in distress. What it is I wish to produce is argument, fair and serious argument. I have neither endeavour nor desire to substitute ridicule. On this as on every occasion, I had rather […?] a man than deceive him, and many is the man whom for fear of deceiving him I have tried to bring it to view. But a claim such as this merely to state it – to state it in any way whatever – in the plainest and simplest garb that can be found for it is so the matter seems to me to cover /overwhelm/ it with ridicule. As to this supposed Whig excellence though it is impossible for me to admitt it, it is not necessary to me to contest it. For if my persuasion in this matter be correct, and I flatter myself with the having proved it so, no creature born of woman howsoever excellent can ever have been entitled to the confidence in question, because it is not in the nature of any such creature to make any such sacrifice as that which is necessary[?] to the production of this effect. If this be correct, then unless it were proved that Whigs in general have not been born of women, no species or degree of excellence on their part would even though proved, contribute any thing towards proving their /them to have any/ title to this same lot of confidence.
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Title: [1819 June 13 To Erskine ult]Description: 1819 June 13 To Erskine ult o Lett. 7. Whig’s Anti Reformists For the clearer proof of this position I shall be leave to range what I have to say on this subject under the following subordinate positions: - 1. On the part of a set of men in the situation in question any such desire as that of witnessing a change of the sort in question, and contributing towards it by a free sacrifice of the sort in question is in the nature of the case morally impossible. {Say for shortness – The Desire impossible.} 2. By no act, on the part of the Whigs, or any of them, has any evidence of any such desire been afforded. {Say for shortness – The desire not proved.} 3. By what has been said done – and left undone by leaders among the Whigs the non-existence of any such desire has been repeatedly proved. {Say for shortness. The desire disproved.} 4. By the Whig theory of Whig excellence no proof can be afforded of the existence, or of the moral possibility of any such desire. {Say for shortness. Whig excellence untenable /unmaintainable/.} Such are my persuasions; now for the grounds on which they rest.
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